


Rockets Are A Form of Fireworks Too

by IShouldBeWriting



Category: 18th Century CE RPF, British Military - Fandom, Constantine (Comic), Friday the 13th: The Series (TV), Hellblazer & Related Fandoms, Historical RPF, New 52 (comics)
Genre: Anglo-Mysorean War, Author has mystical objects coming out her ear, Because of course occultist crossover fic is a thing that should happen, Canon Compliant, Community: intoabar, Cursed objects, F/M, Gen, John Constantine is a lecherous bastard but we knew that, Mentioned of DC's House Of Mystery, Mysorean Rocket
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 18:04:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3905713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShouldBeWriting/pseuds/IShouldBeWriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Constantine has always been unrepentant about his appreciation of women.  The fact that this one happens to come with making sure a cursed object is secured agains future use is just icing on the cake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rockets Are A Form of Fireworks Too

**Author's Note:**

> Written for IntoABar Spring 2015. Wikipedia links to real historical persons and events listed I. The end notes for those who are curious

“Hello?  Anyone in?”

  


His voice had a muffled echo to it as if the shop went much farther back than it appeared.  Constantine shrugged.  Wouldn’t be the first time he’d encountered an extradimensional space.  

  


“Can I help you?” The voice - female, pleasantly rich in tone, and obviously cultured - sounded from somewhere toward the back of the shop.  

  


“Less what you can do to help me and more what I can do to help you, luv,” he muttered under his breath.

  


Constantine navigated his way there, skirting shelves filled with knick knacks, a porcelain doll, a taxidermied monkey dressed in vest and fez, a small chandelier dripping with dusty crystals.  Definitely his kind of place.  He ascended a short flight of stairs to find a woman sitting behind a desk covered in papers, books, and old hand written ledgers. She wore a thin crepe blouse and had a cloud of blood red hair surrounding a slim, pale face.  When she looked up and it was all he could do not to fall head-first into wide eyes the color of aged cognac.

  


Bollocks. Constantine swore internally.  This one reeked of occult powers, and not all of them of the light.  Like him, it fairly dripped from her skin, creating a translucent glow to anyone who knew enough to look at her with The Sights.  Harry hadn’t been kidding when he’d warned Constantine to tread carefully around this one.

  


“Little birdy told me you’d been looking for something.  A certain cylindrical iron tube.  Rusted and pitted thing about 8 inches long and 3 inches diameter with a sword sticking out the end. Ring any bells?”

  


She looked down, quickly pulling one of the ledgers over on top of the papers she’d been working on.  Nimble fingers flicked through pages, one manicured tip tracing down the entries on each page until she came to the one she wanted.  Rising, she bent over to dig through a set of low shelves behind the desk, showing off nicely proportioned legs which disappeared beneath a tantalizingly short skirt. Oh yes, Harry had certainly been right.  And in more ways than one.

  


She pulled out a large, dusty book.  (Was there anything other than her in this shop that  wasn’t dusty?)  Index, flip through pages, and turn.  The book lay open before him on the desk showing an old photograph.

  


“Yep, that’s the one, love; Mysorean rocket invented by Hyder Ali.  Brought back from the war by a Colonel Braithwaite.”

  


“Where did you find it?” She asked excitedly.  “Jack! Ryan!” (Dear god her voice was shrill when she yelled.)

  


There was a muffled thud from somewhere behind and above him that sounded like feet hitting the floor.  (Perhaps someone falling out of bed?) Said feet thundered down the stairs wearing a pair of Converse followed by faded black pants and an obviously well loved punk band t-shirt.  The young man’s dark hair was tousled.  (So then he had been asleep…)

  


“Wha?” He asked blearily.

  


“This guy says he’s got a lead on one of our  stolen antiques.”  

  


The veneer of sleep instantly fell away from the young man.  “Which one?”

  


The way the woman emphasized the word stolen.

  


Bingo.

  


So she  was into the occult and, by deduction, so was her partner.

  


The redhead pointed wordlessly at the open book.  The man peered at it, then ran his finger down the ledge, stopping at the same entry the woman had a few minutes earlier.

  


“Where’s Jack?” She asked.

  


“Out meeting with Garreth.  They’re still wrapping up that mess with  the coin .” 

  


The woman flinched her hands clenching on the desktop. 

  


“Sorry,” the man murmured, putting one arm around her to give a brief reassuring hug.

  


So then they were just business partners, not lovers?  And she was such a tempting morsel.  He was only in town for a couple of days. Maybe…  Yes, he could work with this.  But did she know what she was dealing with?  Was she aware of the power or just an innocent?  

  


Constantine heard the flapping of many wings in the distance.  Beyond grimy shop-front windows, he could see the flurry of dark wings

  
Looked like he had good reason to find out.  

**Author's Note:**

> [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Constantine#Fictional_character_biography ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Constantine#Fictional_character_biography)
> 
> [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Mystery ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Mystery)
> 
> [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_John_Braithwaite,_1st_Baronet ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_John_Braithwaite,_1st_Baronet)
> 
> [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Anglo-Mysore_War ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Anglo-Mysore_War)
> 
> [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyder_Ali ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyder_Ali)
> 
> [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysorean_rockets ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysorean_rockets)


End file.
